We humans have been created as social beings and that's where we thrive and survive.

We look up to others who inspire us and are dong great things and we want to be like them.

It could be anyone from our pious predecessors - all the way to movie stars, musicians and celebrities.

When it comes to the celebrities we know everything about them and can go on forever.

But what about our pious predecessors?

How much do we know about them and how far are we willing to travel to learn and then emulate them?

Listen, none of us will be like our pious predecessors or even the celebrities we follow.

You and I are uniquely created and each of us has that something special to offer the world.

And just as we look up to celebrity females for life tips and hints (sometimes real bad examples!) we need to look into our pious predecessors.

Ready to take a journey into the past and get lessons from a great woman in Islam who has a whole surah in the Qur'an named after her, was the mother of a Prophet AND has valuable lessons to teach us today?

Although there are not many books written on her (I have one i will recommend in the class) I attended an online 9 week tafsir class about 2 years ago and after re-visiting the tafsir I picked up so many personal development lessons from just the first 30+ verses.

My jaw dropped - how did I not see this before?

Well, maybe because right now is the right time and right now is when it was written and decided from above that I should teach you all this Masterclass.

This is an online 90 minute (max) Masterclass where we will go through the story of Maryam (as) and then take out the personal development gems and dissect them to see how we can apply them to our life today.

There are lessons in God-Consciousness, awareness, trust, keeping secrets, hope, guarding one's soul, pain-relief and so much more!

Exactly - a lot to cover.

We will not cover the verse by verse translation (as I said above I attended 9 online lessons) however that will be available for anyone offline to book.

You will get the replay link (so no worries if you can't attend live, but you MUST register and purchase a ticket) as well as a pdf handout with all the personal development gems.

I'm really excited about teaching this class on Monday 30th December at 9pm GMT insha'Allah.

[Ps - This class is for sisters only - so brothers reading this post please share this post with the women in your family and let them know about the class and don't worry i will have another Masterclass end of January 2014 which will be for everyone insha'Allah!]

So, which of you sisters is attending this Masterclass? Let me know! :)

...To live a successful, productive, powerful, energetic, fulfilled and spiritual life you have to 'Be Your Authentic Self.'

***What does this mean?***

It means being who you were created to be.

It means your soul being happy in your body.

It means accepting your flaws and shortcomings and working to better yourself.

It means celebrating your strengths and achievements.

It means having an 'Attitude of Gratitude' - thanking Allah (swt) at every point and really truly appreciating from within - from the soul.

And when your Lord proclaimed: “If you give thanks , I will give you more, but if you are thankless, verily! My Punishment is indeed severe.” [Surah Ibrahim 14:7 - partial]

***But what if the 'Authentic Me' is not so good?***

Simple - you work on yourself, daily!

Everyday we work on ourselves to make ourselves better - there is no such thing as perfect but YOU are the perfect YOU and there is only one of you - so nurture the YOU.

'You say that you are just a body but inside of you is something greater than the universe!' Imaan Shafi

You were put in this world as a unique being so celebrate that and allow yourself to grow, learn, develop, mature and enjoy the one life you have in this world.

If you spend a life time of trying to be like someone else then you are only harming yourself as you will never be happy or fulfilled in any area of your life.

Don't compare your life to anyone else - as each one of us has a unique journey and we are all travelling upon different roads.

When you are not the authentic you then you are being one way to one person and another way to someone else - a bit like lying - and we know that lying ultimately hurts only us.

So go ahead, make a vow today to start being the authentic you and working on your daily self-development - at least 30 minutes each day.

When you are being your authentic self then all the doors of opportunities will open up to you, you will make a greater impact in the world and you will be the complete person that you were created to be.

Today's Tips & Action Points:

1. Grab your pen and notebook/journal and write down who you are, who you have been up until now and who you want to be from this moment onward.

2. Schedule in at least 30 minutes a day (to start with) to read up on personal development material (or go through our previous blog posts) and start to put those teachings into practice.

3. What is your unique purpose in this world and what will you do to make this world a better place? Now go work it! :)

I think this following dua is beautiful.

On the coming of dawn the The Messenger of God (may peace be upon him) used to say in his prayers:

"O Allah (God), illuminate my heart with light, and my eyes with light and my ears with light and let there be light on my right and light on my left. Let there be light above me and light below me, let there be light in front of me and light behind me. O Allah, make me a light"

Leave me a comment below and let me know what message you took away from this post and let's become an active community here who help to inspire and motivate each other towards goodness insha'Allah! :)

One of the injustices we can do to ourselves is not believing in ourselves and just always listening to others. And others may not always be our best supporters (even if we think they 'should'!).

But, are we the best supporters for our loved ones who have dreams and goals they want to achieve? Hmm....

We're in December and 2013 is almost over. Now is the time to have a quick look at those goals you set for the year.

Be realistic. Things happen. They are supposed to happen. I've completed some and some I am restarting this month (my studies - after a year break!) to get a head start.I ain't waiting til 1st January - this moment is all I have!

We are a working progress. Let this be a reflection moment and let this be a trigger to get us focused again and back on track insha'Allah.

Now would be a good time to look at our goals and achievements so far.

Remember though, each moment is our only real moment - this moment is all we have and this moment could be the moment you decide to make some positive changes in your life!

Always keep the end in mind - Jannah al-Firdaus.

Do something phenomenonally awesome right now. Start up your very own 'Dream Team' and become part of someone's dream team!

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said : "None of you will believe until you love for your brother what you love for yourself." Related by Bukhari & Muslim

In this dream team you have your supporters, mentors and coaches. And you would be the same in someone else's dream team.

We all need A* players in our world - on our side. God created us social beings and it is in social settings we thrive and excel.

"Help you one another in Al-Birr and At-Taqwa (virtue, righteousness and piety); but do not help one another in sin and transgression." {Qur'an; 5:2} (partial)

This dream team will be there to support you through all your ups and downs and will encourage you to excel.

What you think?

Go on, start your dream team right now :)

Action Point & Tips:

1. What do you want to achieve in your 'Dream-Become-Reality' Life?

- Grab a pen and paper and draw a circle in the middle of the page.

- Slice the circle into however many areas you want to work on in your life (for each person it is different - it could be work, family biz, or it could be work, family, biz, health, kids etc)

- Rate each slice of your circle out of 10 - so for example you know health is very important to me so right now i would give it a 6 or 7 out of 10.

- Look at the top 3 areas that you want to work on right now and for each of these ask and answer the following questions.

a) What do i want to achieve in this area of my life?

b) What three things do i need to do right now to achieve them?

c) Who can help me get what i need to achieve this now?

2. Who do you want in your 'Dream Team'?

- These could be living or dead. You know why? There's many who have passed on yet their legacy and message continues - just like Rasool-Allah, all his companions and all our pious predecessors. They have numerous works and books from the seerah all the way to their biographies and inventions - so add them into your team.

- Living - who are they? Are they those who have already achieved what you want to achieve? Those you admire and look up to for their moral, ethics, beliefs and principles? Or are they someone living on your street who is an unsung hero and has so much to offer you in terms of advice and nuggets. Never underestimate who we can learn from insha'Allah.

- Write down the names of all these people and what they have to offer you in what you are trying to achieve for yourself.

3. Whose 'Dream Team' do you want to be part of?

- Has anyone approached you asking for advice and nuggets? Not just those who always seem to have issues but those who really want to achieve something and look up to you.

- Contact them and offer to mentor when you can. Of course you set your own time and days when you can be available but let them know that you are here to help.

- Could you teach others this message about creating a dream team? If so, go ahead and do so now - share this post.

Do you already have a dream team? Are you ready to create yours now? Comment below and let me know :)

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” Charles Dickens[Ps - I will be opening up VIP Day's where you get to work with me for a day one 2 one. To pre-enquire drop an email to webeinspired@selfaware.com]